Hello, {{lead.First Name:default=Subscriber}}, welcome to HIMSS' Health IT Policy Update, bringing you the latest news on Congressional, federal, and state health IT legislative and regulatory activities from HIMSS' Government Relations office. We welcome your feedback. If you're reading this complimentary newsletter online or receiving it as a forward, please subscribe.

Congressional

115th Congress Sworn InHHS Secretary-designate Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) is slated to be vetted by the Senate HELP Committee on January 18th, although a hearing with the Senate Finance Committee, which makes the official confirmation vote for the HHS Secretary, has not been scheduled.

Federal

HIMSS Submits Comment Letter on MACRA Final RuleHIMSS appreciates the content of the Final Rule and the reduction in the number of required measures and the flexibility provided to practices to select the measures that they believe best represent their patients’ needs.

ONC Releases 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory The ISA catalogues key information about standards and implementation specifications – such as whether they are required by any federal programs or how widely used they are – to help enhance information sharing for key clinical data, including medication lists, immunization records, and test results.

2016 Most Influential Women in HIT Awards Interviews: Karen DeSalvo MD
In this episode of STEPS to Value, we explore the impact that governmental policy has on the health information technology industry with Dr. Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, Acting Assistant Secretary and the former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. DeSalvo also shares her own personal story and advice for women considering a career in the STEM fields as part of HIMSS’ Women in Health IT Initiative.

Hope for Patient-Driven Interoperability and Innovation
This year marks my tenth year in health IT. Previously, I was a technologist in the government and non-profit sectors. My first introduction into health IT was working for an obstetrics EHR company. I had never heard of “HL7” prior to that, but it didn’t take long until I was immersed in the world of interfaces as I helped a hospital system build ADT feeds from their legacy MS4 System into the EHR I supported.

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Health IT Policy Update is a weekly online newsletter published by HIMSS.

The inclusion of an organization name, product or service in this publication should not be construed as a HIMSS endorsement of such organization, product or service, nor is the failure to include an organization name, product or service to be construed as disapproval.